1. Rez Sisters takes place in August-September of 1986 on the Wasy Indian Reserve on Manitoulin Island, in Canada. The play revolves around a group of siblings and half-siblings – Pelajia, Philomena, Mary-Adele, Veronique, Emily, and Annie. Zhaboonigan is also included in the journey, and she is the adopted daughter of Veronique who suffers from a mental disability. All six women hear news of the “Biggest Bingo in the World” in Toronto and ban together to travel in hopes of winning the jackpot. Each of the women has different goals in winning the lottery – ranging from being able to afford moving off the Wasy reservation, to a new stove or new toilet, or to falling in love. As they travel to Toronto, they discuss their own lives and the limited opportunities on the Wasy Reserve, as well as their hopes for a new future.
2.The intrusion is the reveal of the Biggest Bingo in the World, which pushes the women to travel to Toronto in hopes of winning. Before news of the Bingo, the women would have probably stayed in their own lives on the Wasy Reserve, and may have even been unable to work together and simply kept bickering (as they do in the general store when confronting each other).
3. Rez Sisters takes place on the day that all of the women decide to gather money and transportation to drive to Toronto for the “Biggest Bingo in the World”.
4. What is the dramatic question that should be answered by the end of the play?
Will Pelajia every make things change on the reservation?
How will Marie-Adele’s husband and children move on without her? Will all of the women (with Veronique as an example) pull together to help?
Did the Bingo actually change their lives for the better? Did it allow them perspective?
5. Emily’s conversation with Marie-Adele in the car is the clearest example of sequence expositional writing. Emily herself details the exact events that she faced when in San Francisco and when she talks about her girlfriend’s suicide. Her death essentially stained San Francisco for Emily and she “never wants to go back” and has officially returned to the Wasy Reservation – whether she wanted to or not. This is exposition to reveal information that not everyone knows, making it the second type of Ball's exposition definition. Rez Sisters also uses understood exposition in discussing things that everyone knows. Act One's repeated "with a white guy in Sudsbury" line is acknowledging information that everyone in the group already knows and is already known by the audience. The ability for the daughter to get out of the Reservation reiterates the few opportunities for Wasy women to get out of poverty, and they often require a relationship or at least connection" to people outside of the Wasy group.
6. The most theatrical moment of the play takes place in the bingo “hall”, with the women destroying the machine, ripping their cards apart, and calamity ensuing. These actions are paired with the silent dancing of Marie-Adele with the Bingo Master, who transforms into the Nanabush and takes her to the spirit world. The bingo game is the only physical pairing of the “real world” that these women experience and the background “spirit world”, which is alluded to but not fully recognized until Marie-Adele dies. Spirituality is an integral part of the Wasy culture and is referenced throughout the play, with Pelajia even lamenting the loss of traditional language and culture at the beginning of the play. However, this scene proves that these connections are alive and well and still define the Wasy cycle of life and death.
7. List some of the themes of the play.
Female companion and family
Domestic Isolation faced by women (particularly Native American women); possibly include abuse as a theme? (It seems to occur in all of their lives)
Culture and Mysticism (the continuous presence of the Nanabush)
8. While Rez Sisters operates more like an ensemble cast play, Pelajia Patchnose is the one constant character who is included throughout both acts of the play and serves as a kind of character “bookend” for the introduction and conclusion of the story. I would argue that she, rather than the others who have short individual arcs throughout the travel to Toronto, is considered the main character. Pelajia decries the condition of the Reservation and her first desire is to have the roads paved and claims she will move away to Toronto if the chief doesn’t accept her wants. Pelajia also learns of the “Biggest Bingo” and then wants to travel to Toronto (in hopes of getting enough money to fulfill her first want), but has to overcome society obstacles of not enough money (poverty), no car or transport, and food for the journey for herself and the six other women. These issues are solved by all of the women working together and creating a bottle drive, washing windows, working double shifts at the store, and borrowing a car.
9. The Nanabush may technically be considered a cross between a character and an image itself, mirroring different types of birds (primarily, a seagull). The Nanabush is the embodiment of Wasy spirituality and the connection that even the “detatched” Wasy women have to their cultural ancestry. The Nanabush’s role as an image is probably more evident during actual performance, emphasizing the ritual imagery that he embodies. Pelajia's hammer is also an image, that relates to her position within the group as well as the social role of Wasy women on the Reservation. Women are in charge of male roles and responsible for keeping everyone "put together" literally and symbolically.
10. While all of the women are somehow related (either full siblings or half-siblings), only certain pairs really acknowledge their relationship as “sisterly”. Rez Sisters actually illustrates an antithetical point to Real Women. In Real Women, co-workers form a sort of synthetic family and are just as close as biological siblings. In Rez Sisters, these women who are actually related lead remarkably “separate” lives which are connected through life on the Reservation and through constant gossip. Rez Sisters also discusses the dynamic between Wasy men and women on the reservation, with men allowed a double standard in terms of “abuse” and sexuality. Men are often absent from family life, so any single men with no obligations essentially have free run over any type of sexual behavior.
Rez Sisters, like Real Women, also discusses non-biological family relationships, with Veronique’s adopted daughter Zhanaboogin being taken in by basically all of the women. Emily, who is notoriously impatient and upfront with her sisters, is kind to Zha and tries to protect and teach her. The women also all chip in to help Marie-Adele’s husband and family after her passing, reflecting a type of communal family in place in the Wasy Reservation.
1. Rez Sisters takes place in August-September of 1986 on the Wasy Indian Reserve on Manitoulin Island, in Canada. The play revolves around a group of siblings and half-siblings – Pelajia, Philomena, Mary-Adele, Veronique, Emily, and Annie. Zhaboonigan is also included in the journey, and she is the adopted daughter of Veronique who suffers from a mental disability. All six women hear news of the “Biggest Bingo in the World” in Toronto and ban together to travel in hopes of winning the jackpot. Each of the women has different goals in winning the lottery – ranging from being able to afford moving off the Wasy reservation, to a new stove or new toilet, or to falling in love. As they travel to Toronto, they discuss their own lives and the limited opportunities on the Wasy Reserve, as well as their hopes for a new future.
2.The intrusion is the reveal of the Biggest Bingo in the World, which pushes the women to travel to Toronto in hopes of winning. Before news of the Bingo, the women would have probably stayed in their own lives on the Wasy Reserve, and may have even been unable to work together and simply kept bickering (as they do in the general store when confronting each other).
3. Rez Sisters takes place on the day that all of the women decide to gather money and transportation to drive to Toronto for the “Biggest Bingo in the World”.
4. What is the dramatic question that should be answered by the end of the play?
5. Emily’s conversation with Marie-Adele in the car is the clearest example of sequence expositional writing. Emily herself details the exact events that she faced when in San Francisco and when she talks about her girlfriend’s suicide. Her death essentially stained San Francisco for Emily and she “never wants to go back” and has officially returned to the Wasy Reservation – whether she wanted to or not. This is exposition to reveal information that not everyone knows, making it the second type of Ball's exposition definition. Rez Sisters also uses understood exposition in discussing things that everyone knows. Act One's repeated "with a white guy in Sudsbury" line is acknowledging information that everyone in the group already knows and is already known by the audience. The ability for the daughter to get out of the Reservation reiterates the few opportunities for Wasy women to get out of poverty, and they often require a relationship or at least connection" to people outside of the Wasy group.
6. The most theatrical moment of the play takes place in the bingo “hall”, with the women destroying the machine, ripping their cards apart, and calamity ensuing. These actions are paired with the silent dancing of Marie-Adele with the Bingo Master, who transforms into the Nanabush and takes her to the spirit world. The bingo game is the only physical pairing of the “real world” that these women experience and the background “spirit world”, which is alluded to but not fully recognized until Marie-Adele dies. Spirituality is an integral part of the Wasy culture and is referenced throughout the play, with Pelajia even lamenting the loss of traditional language and culture at the beginning of the play. However, this scene proves that these connections are alive and well and still define the Wasy cycle of life and death.
7. List some of the themes of the play.
8. While Rez Sisters operates more like an ensemble cast play, Pelajia Patchnose is the one constant character who is included throughout both acts of the play and serves as a kind of character “bookend” for the introduction and conclusion of the story. I would argue that she, rather than the others who have short individual arcs throughout the travel to Toronto, is considered the main character.
Pelajia decries the condition of the Reservation and her first desire is to have the roads paved and claims she will move away to Toronto if the chief doesn’t accept her wants. Pelajia also learns of the “Biggest Bingo” and then wants to travel to Toronto (in hopes of getting enough money to fulfill her first want), but has to overcome society obstacles of not enough money (poverty), no car or transport, and food for the journey for herself and the six other women. These issues are solved by all of the women working together and creating a bottle drive, washing windows, working double shifts at the store, and borrowing a car.
9. The Nanabush may technically be considered a cross between a character and an image itself, mirroring different types of birds (primarily, a seagull). The Nanabush is the embodiment of Wasy spirituality and the connection that even the “detatched” Wasy women have to their cultural ancestry. The Nanabush’s role as an image is probably more evident during actual performance, emphasizing the ritual imagery that he embodies.
Pelajia's hammer is also an image, that relates to her position within the group as well as the social role of Wasy women on the Reservation. Women are in charge of male roles and responsible for keeping everyone "put together" literally and symbolically.
10. While all of the women are somehow related (either full siblings or half-siblings), only certain pairs really acknowledge their relationship as “sisterly”. Rez Sisters actually illustrates an antithetical point to Real Women. In Real Women, co-workers form a sort of synthetic family and are just as close as biological siblings. In Rez Sisters, these women who are actually related lead remarkably “separate” lives which are connected through life on the Reservation and through constant gossip. Rez Sisters also discusses the dynamic between Wasy men and women on the reservation, with men allowed a double standard in terms of “abuse” and sexuality. Men are often absent from family life, so any single men with no obligations essentially have free run over any type of sexual behavior.
Rez Sisters, like Real Women, also discusses non-biological family relationships, with Veronique’s adopted daughter Zhanaboogin being taken in by basically all of the women. Emily, who is notoriously impatient and upfront with her sisters, is kind to Zha and tries to protect and teach her. The women also all chip in to help Marie-Adele’s husband and family after her passing, reflecting a type of communal family in place in the Wasy Reservation.